So here's our situation -
My partner is a British citizen, I am an NZ citizen and we are currently waiting on a decision for the 461 temporary resident visa. We applied in March this year in Auckland, and our main problem was that we were together for only 8 months when we applied for the visa (as you probably know, the minimum is 12 months), but we explained in our application that this was due to the fact that I had to be in Australia by February for the start of university year. So we are currently long-distance, and have been since February this year, with plenty of evidence of flights home, holidays, etc. to show that we have still seen each other regularly.
We heard from our CO in August, asking for further documentation (not the right police checks, evidence of our relationship since we submitted, etc.) - we were given a 28 day deadline but one of the police checks took around 21 working days to arrive, so we emailed our CO and asked for an extension on the deadline as it was clearly not do-able. She never replied and we just submitted what we had, and submitted the police check when it arrived. It shows on our application on the TTS website that the application was "submitted for processing" again in late August (before the 28 day deadline) so I worry that they're not going to consider our additional documents which are critical in proving that we've still been together since we applied. I'm also concerned that since it says it was submitted again, does this impact the wait time and so we have to wait 10 - 12 months again? Does anyone know anything about this? Or had any experience with late submissions/no responses?
It gets even trickier. My partner's not going to extend his NZ visa, which finishes in November as we had a holiday planned to Thailand, and were really hoping to hear back regarding the partner visa while we were in Thailand or even earlier and planning on coming back to Aus together. I'm continuing my studies here, and so we are planning on coming back together after our holiday (him on a tourist visa), and just having him stay with me until we hear back. He's also considering applying for a student visa, as it allows him to actually be doing something productive while he's here and work on the side too. Does anyone know if we can apply for multiple visas at the same time? I'm aware that he will have to leave the country prior to the partner visa being granted, but if he goes on a student visa, will this impact our partner visa application?
We have contacted our CO about our plans for him to come to Aus on a tourist visa after our holiday but considering she has not been in contact with us since asking for the additional documents, I am doubtful that we will get a response, or notification if she plans on granting the visa. If it is granted while he's still in the country, does that render the entire thing pointless?
I haven't seen much on NZ citizens bringing partners to Aus so any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thank you